There seems to have been a trend for -- or at least chatter about -- more mature, and often thematically "darker" takes on the magical girl genre. Arguably started by series like Mai-HiME and Nanoha in the mid-noughties, it became very prominent following the release of Madoka Magica, and has since been responded to in 0Yuuki Yuuna Is A Hero. While this is certainly an interesting idea to ponder, this approach runs the risk of making the story more driven by theme/symbolism needs than by in-universe setting interactions -- which was something I felt may have happened in Madoka Magica, for example. Meanwhile, Umi Monogatari -- a lesser-known series spawned from a pachinko game, of all things -- seems to have done this idea right, perhaps rather unexpectedly.
Umi Monogatari ("Sea Story") is a 2009 magical girl series that I feel really represents best the idea of a "mature" show, especially one without the pretense that "darker" themes such as despair, philosophical quandaries, and hopelessness of the universe are what are specifically needed to make a story "mature". Instead, it derives, from its characters and setting, a thoughtfully complex yet emotionally meaningful story, and may even prompt the audience to reconsider what "light" and "darkness" mean.
Umi Monogatari is primarily a story about characters, their interactions, and their emotions. It does this not with shock value nor with too much spectacle. Instead, it focuses on those interactions and their consequences. Like you might expect, things are not exactly as they first seem, but rather than subverting tropes for for the mere sake of subversion (only questioning our presumptions about the story), the story also works those tropes in ways that form a coherent whole as well (thus providing meaningful answers to that questioning).
Umi Monogatari is also "mature" is another sense -- it might bore younger viewers. The show is heavy on details of emotion, and dialogue is quite common, as opposed to spectacle or high drama. In a similar vein, the soundtrack is often contemplative and features relatively simple instrumentation that's reused throughout the soundtrack (and I think it's largely or all on acoustic instruments, played by real people, as opposed to synths), as opposed to bombast, even when one might expect bombast. This suggests a patient and introspective approach to the story.
Overall, Umi Monogatari is an experience that connects thoughts and emotions, but is built by neither alone, instead connecting both in a way that weaves together light and darkness. At the same time, it works with some tropes typical of the genre but redirects them in ways that are well-justified by the setting and present a coherent narrative once all the pieces are revealed.
As some more interesting trivia: Umi Monogatari is set at the fictional island of Amamiko, which is based on the real-life island Amami Oshima, one of the many Ryukyu Islands that form the southern tail of Japan. The story features a number of cultural and geographic cues related to the real-life island, and the song sung by the miko seems to be in the local language called Amami.
I want to post the above as a review, but both MAL and Hummingbird make me go through rating each individual component, like, story, characters, art, sound, enjoyment.
And I don't really want to deal with that.
Edit: Wait, I don't have to deal with that for MAL. All I need is one overall score and some text.
HB forcefully puts a score of 1 on every category if you don't put something, so I just ended up rating everything 8/10 and leaving a note.
Mai-HiME was far from the first. Have you ever heard of Full Moon wo Sagashite? It was aimed at kids and teens and wasn't exactly a relentless horrorfest, but the premise puts a really ominous ticking clock on the proceedings. To elaborate, the main character becomes a magical girl as part of a wish she made as she was dying of terminal cancer, and, well, it's not like her disease goes away because she's been granted this wish. She just has power and a bit more time to use it.
In terms of more adult fare, I've already talked plenty about Key the Metal Idol. That show is very ~a e s t h e t i c~.
Also, finally got around to watching episode 3 of Gundam IBO. Mika is a cold sun of a gun. I mean, you didn't even let the dude finish saying thank you before you put 2 in his head.
^^ Going by what I know about Shishio, Japanese fans have interesting taste. Which is a polite way of saying, "You kinky motherfuckers." But Hisoka tying for the top spot should have tipped everyone off on that point.
Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress is now six episodes in and going strong. I went in with some skepticism given the zombie oversaturation of the last decade or so, but Kabaneri has been a very convincing expression of the story type. These stories usually start at the outset of whatever zombie scourge is emerging, but the immediate suggestion in Kabaneri is that things have been tough for quite some time -- long enough for a post-apocalyptic return to fedual ways.
Most people are protected by and organised under a privileged warrior-noble class that uses the fear and insecurities of the people to retain power. This is a strong narrative decision, because it introduces a theme of dehumanisation before our characters are directly threatened by any monsters. Tension is derived moreso from disharmony between characters than from the actual monsters, which are so far a prop used to generate conflict.
The main characters are excellent, because their motivations are clear and their behaviour reflects those motivations. For instance, our first human antagonist isn't power hungry, cruel, or mad; they're motivated by their social role and a compulsion to uphold their duties, and they settle into a secondary protagonist role when stressors on them are relaxed a bit. What comes through clearly in these characters is how each of them has a valid moral position, even if our main protagonist's is the preferable position in a vacuum. It's also nice to see a show with a serious tone poke fun at the heroic martyr complex, which investigates a dimension of the self-sacrificial heroic archetype that isn't so inspiring but very real.
Currently, the main narrative weak link seems to be Mumei. She hints at a hidden origin story and a semi-organised class of zombie fighters, and her knowledge lets the writers either spout exposition or get the other characters out of a tough situation whenever they please. While she's still a relatable character (being prone to allowing pride to come before calculation), I think her dual roles of Miss Exposition and Miss Tension Alleviation have the highest potential to hold future episodes back.
tl;dr: Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress is really good as an action series and a discussion of human moral fragility under traumatic pressure. The main characters all work really well because of the clarity of their motivations and adherence to their established perspectives. It's about as lean and bullshit free as zombie stories or anime come these days, but is solidly entertaining aside from all that.
Something that's bugging me about Re:Zero: Why did Elsa kill Rom and (presumably) Felt in the original timeline, when the only reason she got stabby in the 2nd and 4th timelines was because Emilia was directly involved?
Also, I'm only up to episode 5, but translating oni as demon doesn't really strike me as the best of ideas, even if it's right in the broad strokes. (Granted, I feel like oni is one of those words you probably shouldn't translate at all, so.)
Also, I'm only up to episode 5, but translating oni as demon doesn't really strike me as the best of ideas, even if it's right in the broad strokes. (Granted, I feel like oni is one of those words you probably shouldn't translate at all, so.)
It's a bit of a predicament, translation-wise, in the same way that the distinction between ayakashi and mononoke is difficult to articulate. If I gave it some thought, I could probably come up with something.
i watched steamboy again and scarlett o'hara, who i just realized is named scarlett o'hara, must have had a good time explaining to the american and british governments that shooting up the royal navy and nuking the thames was okay actually
i watched steamboy again and scarlett o'hara, who i just realized is named scarlett o'hara, must have had a good time explaining to the american and british governments that shooting up the royal navy and nuking the thames was okay actually
she just got in her biplane and when the governments tried to get her she was gone with the wind
Something that's bugging me about Re:Zero: Why did Elsa kill Rom and (presumably) Felt in the original timeline, when the only reason she got stabby in the 2nd and 4th timelines was because Emilia was directly involved?
i kinda took that as meaning she actually would have killed them regardless, but if that doesn't work, maybe something went wrong during negotiations?
Alright, so this article is a good summary of why good anime doesn't really make it in the market, but it seems nostalgia-tinted all the same. Good anime hasn't become rarer - it's simply become easier to make bad anime, because 1. it's become easier to make anime and 2. bad anime, like most bad things, is easier to make than good anime.
Digibro really nailed it when he discussed why good, original anime is hard to make. The anime industry is not inherently different from any media industry: it is a business like the rest of them. And a relatively new one, at that. It's safer to make things that pander to the audience because that's what sells, and at this early of a stage (recall, even manga only arose around the 40s-50s) it's not wise to play risky with your money because the losses are much bigger in this playing field.
This combined with computer technology making it easier than ever to produce anime leads to an influx of shitty cliched shows, with the real gems buried deep underneath.
And then she doesn't even do the stabby things. What a rip.
Anyway Lovepon is actually one of the more sympathetic characters in this show. Actually, I could see myself going into detail for characters beside her, but I'm not caught up yet.
So to all you people that like the Cute Girls Doing Cute Things market: Reminder that this manga called New Game!, about girls working on video games, has cute girls doing cute stuff. Also it's getting an anime adaptation in July. The screenwriter, Fumihiko Shimo, apparently worked on the fourth Haruhi film, Yoshiyuki Fujiwara has previously worked on GJ-bu (cute girls do club things), in multiple ways, alongside Hajime Hkyakkoku who did the music for it and is doing the music for NG!. So presumably they'll coordinate well on that front. The manga is a 4koma, if that's a make-or-break deal for you.
Comments
I'm loving it.
DON'T LOSE YOUR WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
ミドリちゃん
Umi Monogatari ("Sea Story") is a 2009 magical girl series that I feel really represents best the idea of a "mature" show, especially one without the pretense that "darker" themes such as despair, philosophical quandaries, and hopelessness of the universe are what are specifically needed to make a story "mature". Instead, it derives, from its characters and setting, a thoughtfully complex yet emotionally meaningful story, and may even prompt the audience to reconsider what "light" and "darkness" mean.
Umi Monogatari is primarily a story about characters, their interactions, and their emotions. It does this not with shock value nor with too much spectacle. Instead, it focuses on those interactions and their consequences. Like you might expect, things are not exactly as they first seem, but rather than subverting tropes for for the mere sake of subversion (only questioning our presumptions about the story), the story also works those tropes in ways that form a coherent whole as well (thus providing meaningful answers to that questioning).
Umi Monogatari is also "mature" is another sense -- it might bore younger viewers. The show is heavy on details of emotion, and dialogue is quite common, as opposed to spectacle or high drama. In a similar vein, the soundtrack is often contemplative and features relatively simple instrumentation that's reused throughout the soundtrack (and I think it's largely or all on acoustic instruments, played by real people, as opposed to synths), as opposed to bombast, even when one might expect bombast. This suggests a patient and introspective approach to the story.
Overall, Umi Monogatari is an experience that connects thoughts and emotions, but is built by neither alone, instead connecting both in a way that weaves together light and darkness. At the same time, it works with some tropes typical of the genre but redirects them in ways that are well-justified by the setting and present a coherent narrative once all the pieces are revealed.
As some more interesting trivia: Umi Monogatari is set at the fictional island of Amamiko, which is based on the real-life island Amami Oshima, one of the many Ryukyu Islands that form the southern tail of Japan. The story features a number of cultural and geographic cues related to the real-life island, and the song sung by the miko seems to be in the local language called Amami.
And I don't really want to deal with that.
Edit: Wait, I don't have to deal with that for MAL. All I need is one overall score and some text.
HB forcefully puts a score of 1 on every category if you don't put something, so I just ended up rating everything 8/10 and leaving a note.
Also, finally got around to watching episode 3 of Gundam IBO. Mika is a cold sun of a gun. I mean, you didn't even let the dude finish saying thank you before you put 2 in his head.
me doing community service
puts everyone to sleep, guaranteed
Cool, though it's that series with the crappy character designs, right?
and vividred
and various others
okay, fine, the recent series with the crappy character design
edit: vividred's character designs aren't actually that crappy; it's the camera angles that are stupid